Page 38.08 cautions you to follow the instructions precisely for the following pages. Therefore I am scared of following my instincts and countersink C-01408 before riveting using 426 rivets in step 5 on page 38-09.

I am not sure that this is a "gotcha" or not. But I think that the seat ribs in the finishing kit have changed. Section 55 shows that the 3/4" holes for the stick wire bundle have a rounded notch out so that the rectangular connector and be pushed through (check out Van's revision of plans and the notch is clearly there). I am not sure when that changed. It is clearly not in any of the plan revisions that I have looked at so far. Section 25, 28, and 29 all show the ribs with round 3/4" holes. Maybe I missed where it is called out in the plans to make this notch out. Also, the 3/4" holes in the tunnel sides F-01451 are not notched.

Also, install all the snap bushings before running the wire harness. I put in the WH on one side with out doing this and boy is it a pain to do after it is in place.

...Section 25, 28, and 29 all show the ribs with round 3/4" holes. Maybe I missed where it is called out in the plans to make this notch out. Also, the 3/4" holes in the tunnel sides F-01451 are not notched.

I haven't checked since I built to see if they added the notch to the plans. In my case, I received a piece of paper (not a plan revision page) with the fuselage kit that had a drawing with instructions to add the notch.

I don't recall the time frame of when I ordered the fuselage kit, but it had been out awhile before I finished up the empennage kit and the wing kit. The single sheet drawing I received may not have been in the earliest deliveries of the fuselage kit.

That said, this is the only part of the Van's wiring kit that I ended up replacing. I found the connector that goes through this hole to be too vulnerable to working. It is a mini molex that really needs to be held rigidly or the pins can work loose and come out of the connector. I replaced these connections with D subs after that happened on one of the sticks (long before first flight).

In the end, you can just remove the connector and feed the stick wiring through the unmodified hole. Don't try removing the pins and reinserting them in the mini molex. Per Molex specs, these are one shot pins, they are not meant to be removed and reinserted.

Not sure this is a "gotcha", maybe it should be added to the "common mistakes" spreadsheet even though it is not a mistake. It is more "it makes life easier".

So I am installing the WH-00125 and other electrical stuff in the fuselage and I found it relatively annoying to install the ground wires for the sticks and the 12 V power supply.

Van's should supply jumper wires for the stick which are a ring terminal to a spade terminal, then have a spade terminal on the WH-00125. Then one could install the ground jumper when before the parts are put in or when they are installed but easy to access. Since the ground wires for the sticks are relatively long, just clip off the ring terminal and replace with a spade terminal and make the jumper wire yourself.

The 12 V power supply would be even easier. All that one needs is a 4" wire with a ring terminal and a female spade terminal and attach to the rib during installation. Again, why van's doesn't supply this wire in the fuselage kit is beyond me?

Maybe ground wires aren't supposed to be spliced, so this would be a stupid idea.

Not really a "gotcha", rather this is a heads up that even though the fuel senders look identical, they aren't. There should be a 385B stamped on one ground plane, and 385C stamped on the other of the two senders. You will know immediately if you have put the wrong sender in the tank because the screw holes won't line up and it will hold the sweeper mechanism at an angle.

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